Need some upgrade help

[pyroblast]

Hi. My pc is old. Very old. I'm trying to beef it up a bit to better perform when playing games like WoW and running Visual Studio. The upgrade should be to benefit me for a few months until I'm able to start from scratch since my laptop kinda tapped me out(not to mention the new baby). I'm sure what I'm asking is a bit of a stretch but hopefully there's a few changes I can make cheaply.

Here's my current system:
AMD XP2500+ Barton
Asus A7N8X 2.0
1Gb(2X512) Mushkin Hi-perf DDR400
WD800JB 80gb IDE Hdd
Geforce 7300Gt AGP
Antec Truepower 430

What I'd like to do is get as much of a performance boost as possible for $300 or less. I'm sure it's alot to ask..lol. I've been out of the loop since I built this rig years ago, but have been poking around Newegg. I was thinking that maybe a 939 mobo with a better cpu and another gig of ram may be the answer, but I'm really unsure of myself which lead me here. Well, I hope there's a solution out there for me and I appreciate any help.

Thanks.

 

[RebateMonger]

If you want to spend the absolute least amount of money, I'd get a Core 2 Duo CPU (about $115) and a motherboard ($60) that will use it along with your current AGP card and memory. You'd still have $100 to use for another GB of memory ($40-$50).

 

[stogez]

You could get a 939 mobo with AGP and run a X2 processor. Might be a little cheaper than the C2D option but the C2D will probably give you better performance.

 

[pyroblast]

Thanks for the advice guys. I found a pretty good deal on an AMD 3800+ x2 socket 939 cpu, so I jumped on it. I've been looking into boards that will allow me to utilize my remaining hardware, but I haven't found much. Currently high bidder on an ECS KVN lite on egay, but will prolly only go up to maybe $40 since it only has 2 dimm's. Are there any other inexpensive boards that meet my criteria that you'd recommend?

Thanks again.